Winemaking Philosophy

Our goal at L’Ecole N°41 is to achieve clean, ripe, stylistically expressive, and aromatic wines that let the individual site characteristics of our vineyards shine through. We believe in well-balanced wines, good acidity, firm but not over-powering tannins, complementary oak extraction, and vibrant, expressive aromas and fruit flavors. To achieve these ends, we have a high quality dual focus on vineyard management and winemaking practices

Vineyard Management

We believe in an intense involvement in all aspects of vineyard management, including designated blocks or rows, a direct personal relationship with the on-site vineyard manager or viticulturalist, and tight winery controls on yield and other vineyard practices, for both our own estate grown and contracted acreage. We focus on:

aggressive pruning to limit yield

drip irrigation to fine tune canopy growth and vine vigor; we only irrigate as much as is minimally needed by the plant

shoot thinning for improved spacing and balance

sustainable biologically-based vineyard practices

thinning post-bloom and green thinning at veraison for low yields and uniformity of ripeness

picking on the harvest date selected by the winemaker; cool mornings for the whites and warm mid-day temperatures for the reds

Winemaking Practices

We believe in winemaking practices that assure our wines will be more expressive, more aromatic, and show their individual vineyard site characteristics. With highly focused attention to detail for each vineyard lot, we prefer limited manipulation and handling of the fruit, exemplified by the following:

gravity assisted fruit movements, without the use of a must pump

limited adjustments on acidity, accomplished when necessary at the fermentation stage

healthy fermentations through use of small 1.5 – 5 ton fermentors for temperature control, thorough mixing, and oxygen management